What a week …

… Actually almost two.

Last the week of August 8th was kinda crazy – I took two days sorta off from work, Tuesday was election day and Thursday was my birthday. Sorta off because I worked the polls on Tuesday and then still did some grading in my online class afterward, and even on Thursday I still checked email.

On my birthday I went in to work my regular shift at the main campus library, selecting & sorting books for the Friends’ booksale that’s coming up in October. I took cupcakes.

The week of the 8th was also the last week of UW summer classes, and grades are were due today Monday the 15th, so only 3 days after the last day of classes. And our new students’ orientation was August 16th and 17th. So I made no plans for the weekend, and actually was able to get able my grades submitted by midday on Monday.

I started writing this post on Monday (8/15) and now it’s Saturday Sunday.

Today’s Saturday’s been a little too exciting. I’ve been having pain in my right leg, kind of off & on since the end of July – I think I pulled a hamstring trying to walk too fast and keep up with Mark on one of our Sunday walks when it was a hot day & before I was warmed up enough. And ever since I’ve been getting calf cramps in that leg. And it seemed like it was getting better, but somehow it was a lot sorer this Saturday morning. We decided to walk to the Farmers Market because it was a little too rainy to  bike, but I was afraid we’d get to the Square and I’d be sore and still have to walk home. Which is exactly what happened. I wanted to try rubbing some topical pain reliever into the cramped muscle (see overleaf), so I went to Walgreens and got it, and Mark went and got us coffee and we rested for a bit on one of the benches outside the Capitol –  the King St., Hans Christian Heg side – and meanwhile I Google mapped taking the bus home. It all worked just fine; it started to rain so there were pretty many people at the bus stop – but still plenty of seats on the bus – until I was getting off. I was standing on the stairs with all my weight on my gimpy right leg, and when the bus lurched to a stop, something twisted and it hurt like nobody’s business, as my grandmother used to say. I hobbled home and took more Advil and put the Farmers Market purchases away, and ate breakfast (see overleaf), and eventually decided I better make an appointment with the doctor. I set something up for Sept. 2, but they called back and said don’t you want to come sooner, and that made it start to get scary. I’d been worrying all along that the leg pain was a sign of something more serious. So I got there and they recommended an ultrasound to rule out blood clots. Scarier still and it also meant navigating the main UW Hospital. But I got there, and long story short, the ultrasound was all clear. They let me go home. It took me a while to find the car in the parking lot – when I got there I couldn’t figure out how to get to the main hospital entrance undercover, so I exited by the car entrance on foot, and walked through the rain to the entrance, and so when I came out the proper way, undercover, I had to wander the ramps in the parking lot, and retrace my steps to find the car. I stopped at Whole Foods to pick up a few bananas, and bought some frozen egg rolls on a whim because I was planning to make fried rice for dinner, and I though the egg rolls would be fun to go-with. Mark suggested something easy (he doesn’t love fried rice), so we had sandwiches for dinner instead. Whew.

Oh yea, and somewhere in there, Saturday afternoon, before the doctoring started, I made kimchi and veggie broth, the two cooking projects I’d been putting off all week. Fortunately the bits of veggie scraps I’d been saving, tomato skins and stem ends, corn cobs, herb stems, and so on, didn’t mold before I could get them into the broth … and I know, some people freeze the scraps until there’s enough for broth, I just haven’t tried that yet.

They gave me a bunch of exercises to do to rehabilitate the leg, and I faithfully did them Sunday morning. I skipped the long walk with Mark, and instead went to Metcalfe’s to get buttermilk for these kimchi biscuits (non-NYT subscribers might hit a paywall …) we’ll have for brunch, that are in their freezer phase right now. My brother recommended them, and I was already intrigued but had not tried them because I hadn’t made the kimchi as yet for this year, and the last time I looked a jar of kimchi was $8+ at the co-op. I’m not making the biscuits with my kimchi though – I found a 1-pound plastic pouch of the stuff at Whole Foods, called “Cleveland Kimchi“, and it was only about $6, so I’m using that.

Anyways, my bike ride started off kind of a shit show: I’ve been trying to remember to put my foot through when I take off on my bike because scrunching up my right leg to swing through once I’ve started hurts. But the skirt I’m wearing is a bit too tight for that, and I tipped over. In.my.own.driveway. Then when I righted my bike, the chain fell off so of course after getting the chain back on, I had to go inside and wash my hands and try again. I don’t think anyone saw. It was like 9:05 on a Sunday morning.

I also was the recipe writer for CSA the week of August 8th. I made summer vegetable soup, and a corn, feta, and pepper pasta, to be served with pane con tomate, Catalan tomato bread.

And, I think it was last Sunday (the 14th) I bought cherries and peaches at the Farmers Market, but instead of making them into pie filling, I made cherry muffins and cherry-peach crumble.

I also made a couple of things I thought I should put in as CSA recipes, green beans on whipped ricotta, and a cucumber salad with mint, cilantro, and peanuts – that got really soggy but still tasted good, when we ate it with corn and brats, cooked indoors, after I got back soaking wet from seeing Jon Langford and his Fancy Men at the McPike Sessions. It rained on me on my bike the whole way home. They did the song in this video – he introduced it saying that we need to start voting for anyone other than old white men.

And maybe I can still do this tomato galette for CSA.

And we had the kimchi biscuits with fried ham and scrambled eggs and sliced tomatoes and roasted potatoes for brunch. And fried apples almost not shown – they’re in the blue bowl you can glimpse in the top corner.